Elisabetta Marino

Tanfer Emin Tunc

This collection of new essays examines the "transnational turn" in cultural studies between Asia and the West. Drawing on literature, history, culture, film and media studies, scholars from a range of disciplines explore the constructs of "Asia" and "the West" and their cultural collision. Topics include the relationship between European and American writers and Asia, western travelers to the East and eastern travelers to the West, transnational historic figures, the deconstruction of Orientalism, new critical perspectives in transnational studies, the immigrant experience in literature, post-colonial studies, and teaching "the West" in Asia and "Asia" in the West.

Essays on Transnational Interactions

The West in Asia and Asia in the West

Mihaela Gligor

This book looks at Rabindranath Tagore’s creative art, social commitment, literary and artistic representation and his unique legacy in the cultural history of modern India – as a blend of the quintessentially Indian and the liberal universalist. Tagore’s genius, which he expressed through his poetry, songs, paintings, drama and philosophy, is celebrated across the globe. In 1913, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his volume of poetry, Gitanjali (Song Offerings), making him the first Nobel laureate from Asia. This volume of essays celebrates his intellectual engagements and his incredible legacy by discussing the diverse ways in which his works have been reinterpreted, adapted and translated over the years. It analyses his perspectives on modernity, nationalism, liberation, education, post-colonialism and translatability and their relevance today. The leitmotif is a Tagore who, while imaginable as made possible only within the Indian tradition, eludes attempts aimed at identification with a national culture and remains a "cosmopolitan" in the best sense of the term. This volume will be of interest to readers and researchers in the fields of literature, philosophy, political science, cultural studies, Asian studies, South Asian studies and Tagore studies. Fans of Tagore will also find this an interesting read as it presents many little knows aspects of the poet’s work.

Essays on His Influence and Cultural Legacy

Tagore beyond Borders

This ground-breaking edited volume includes chapters which explore the past, present and future position of Chinese American authors within the framework of what Harold Bloom identifies as the “Western literary canon.” These selections, which simultaneously represent the exciting “transnational turn” in American literary studies, not only examine whether or not Chinese American literature is inside or outside the canon, but also question if there is, or should be, a literary canon at all. Moreover, they dissect the canonicity of Chinese American literature by elucidating the social, political and cultural implications of inclusion in the canon. Ultimately, however, this collection is designed as a preliminary step towards exploring the impact of Chinese American literature on the white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant-dominated American literary world, and probing the by-products of both cultural fusion and cultural collision.

Chinese American Literature and the Changing Image of the American Literary Canon

Positioning the New

This collection of new essays examines the “transnational turn” in cultural studies between Asia and the West. Drawing on literature, history, culture, film and media studies, scholars from a range of disciplines explore the constructs of “Asia” and “the West” and their cultural collision. Topics include the relationship between European and American writers and Asia, western travelers to the East and eastern travelers to the West, transnational historic figures, the deconstruction of Orientalism, new critical perspectives in transnational studies, the immigrant experience in literature, post-colonial studies, and teaching “the West” in Asia and “Asia” in the West.

Daniela Rogobete

This volume offers a collection of essays focused upon the representation of one of the most traumatic events in the history of India―the 1947 Partition―in literature and cinematographic adaptations. The focus here is placed on various strategies of representation and different types of memory at work in the process of remembering/re-membering Partition. All these avoid the traditional Hindu vs. Muslim perspective, and analyse other sides of the same story, seen from the perspective of marginal people belonging to other religious minorities, whose stories have generally been ignored and silenced by the official historical discourse. The book also demonstrates that the multiple “truths” engendered by this crucial event in India’s history lie along “improbable lines” randomly generated between history, amnesia and memory, between personal drama and collective trauma, loss and rupture, religion and nationalism, and longing and belonging.

Beyond Improbable Lines

The Partition of India

"The growing heterogeneity of Asian American and Asian diasporic voices has also given rise to variegated theoretical approaches to these literatures. This book attempts to encompass both the increasing awareness of diasporic and transnational issues, and more ""traditional"" analyses of Asian American culture and literature. Thus, the articles in this collection range from investigations into the politics of literary and cinematic representation, to ""digging"" into the past through ""literary archeology"", or analyzing how ""consequential"" bodies can be in recent literature by Asian American and Asian diasporic women writers. The book closes with an interview with critic and writer Shirley Lim, where she insightfully deals with these ""transnational, national, and personal"" issues. Elisabetta Marino is Assistant Professor of English literature at the University of Rome ""Tor Vergata"". Her main fields of interest are Asian American and Asian British literature, children's literature, Italian American literature. BegoÃ±a Simal is Assistant Professor of English literature at the Universidade da CoruÃ±a, Spain. She has published critical work on both Asian American literature and comparative ""cross-ethnic"" studies. "

Elisabetta Marino

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